9 arr. BARBIROLLI: "Sheep may safely graze" from Cantata No. 208
John Barbirolli/New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra
Recorded 16 December 1940 on matrix XCO 29463. First issued
on Columbia 11575-D in album X-200.

In the year 2000 we were besieged with Bach from every angle usually with
pretensions toward 'authenticity'. Certainly the was certainly the occasional
CD of orchestral arrangements. I recall the Slatkin disc on Chandos. The
present disc is for the open-minded Bach-ophile.

As you can see from the dates of the recordings, the present set makes
conveniently (and generously) available recordings garnered from far and
wide. These are from an era (rather a long one at that) when arrangements,
tinkering and 'improving' were politically correct. Authenticity is (or has
been) the new orthodoxy since the 1970s. Big band Bach is seen as disrespectful
- even corrupt - artistically speaking. There has of late been a degree of
relaxation. Stokowski's realisations have managed, for years, to secure a
place in the catalogues for such arrangements even in the chilliest winter
of authenticity. What this set goes to show is that, as some specialists
will have known for many years, the making of Bach arrangements for orchestra
has been a sport practised far more widely than the general interest listener
might have realised.

Let us take the arrangements in the order they appear on the discs.

Melichar's BWV 565 makes darkly premonitory storm clouds out of this
clipped and splenetic Toccata and Fugue. The disc exhumes an amazing
level of orchestral detail.

Damrosch's deliberate Gavotte from BWV 1012 is not at all
over-romanticised. It is interesting too to note the nicely judged dynamic
contrasts of the original.

Frederick Stock's bloomingly generous St Anne at Chicago is
rendered in good 1940s vintage sound making a bitter contrast with the primitive
sound of the Damrosch Gavotte.

The Stokowski Arioso is here but not with the Philadelphians
- instead with Toscanini's NBCSO. This is a grave and far from flashy piece
of work.

Mitropoulos and the Minneapolis Symphony in 1942 did much to impress in BWV
542 but for me this does not gel. The whole thing is too portentous by
half.

Until this point the tracks have been conducted by the arrangers.

Ormandy conducts Charles O'Connell's Herzliebster Jesu in a
grave and rather broad account. I noted a slight and subtle 'popping' noise
at 1.00. This is one of the few 'defects'.

The Little Fugue is cheekily arranged by Cailliet. This finds
martinet Reiner in trimly witty mood with the Pittsburgh. This is mightily
impressive.

Still more commanding is Pick-Mangiagalli's BWV 1006 Preludio.
Koussevitsky sends liquid fire dripping from the wings of this piece
aided by the Bostonian's - playing as if possessed.

After all these American orchestras we now skip to Vittorio Gui's two
Chorale Preludes - grave in case of BWV 622 but with spark and liveliness
in BWV615.

Respighi's C minor Passacaglia and Fugue comes from an NBC
broadcast in which Toscanini tends towards a stern and rather pitiless
perfection.

The second disc launches with Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, in 1936, conducting
the Berlin PO in his own arrangement of the Italian Concerto in F
major. The andante is wondrously gentle and reflective. There
is a heartless scampering rush about the Presto relieved by some Mozartian
premonitions.

Kemperer's 1946 Paris Pro Musica recordings of BWV 599 and Bist
du bei mir are very grave by comparison and the sound quality is
fallible for its vintage though the richness of the bass on track 5 is very
satisfying indeed. These tracks have had their pitch computer-stabilised
by Dr Dimitrios Antsos. Some hope then for a pitch and wow corrected recording
of Rubbra conducting the premiere of his Fourth Symphony.

Schoenberg arranged the music of quite a few composers including Strauss
and Bach. His Schmucke dich proceeds at a glutinous snail's
pace in Horenstein's hands as does the stop-start Komm, Gott.
Romantic touches such as the harp silver-points in the closing bars are notable.
Erich Kleiber infuses more drive and charm into the same Berlin Phil for
Schoenberg's 'take' on the St Anne.

Barbirolli wastes no time over Sheep may safely graze. It
positively flies. The NYPSO ski along smoothly with no impression of friction.
There is a great Tchaikovskian flourish at 1.40. This is all extremely well
rounded.

Coates' LSO use a version of the Toccata in F Major arranged
by Heinrich Esser with an alternative concert ending by Elgar thudding its
way forward from 6.20 onwards. Those off-beat stamps are a clear carry-over
from the Elgar Second Symphony.

Sargent's own romantically tasteful arrangement of the famous Air
from BWV1068 proceeds with a steady pulse.

Elgar manages a suggestion of guttering flames and a phantasmal siege around
castle walls in his skilled steer through his own arrangement of the C
minor Fantasia and Fugue. There is even a hint of Nino Rota about
it. The brass call out with golden and abrasive effect and the percussive
'lightning strike' at 5.19 is wonderfully done. This is an indulgently out
of control tumbril of a performance. Glorious!

Henry Wood originally perpetrated his Bach arrangement of the D Minor
Prelude and Fugue under the name of 'Paul Klenovsky'. Some years
later he came clean. He seems to have used a pseudonym because his earlier
arrangements were slated for their Wagnerian overtones. This arrangement
has a bright tinkling character, Russian à la Rimsky and lit
with a broad colour spectrum. This makes it and the preceding Elgar the standout
winners in this rather special collection. Wood puts his orchestra through
a fantastic roller-coaster of a ride.

Amongst the sled-loads of Bach CDs this year (250th anniversary) this anthology
of twentieth century approaches to Bach is varied, surprising, satisfying
and, thank heavens, suffused in the case of many tracks, with a non-PC approach.
Prissy reverence can have a stultifying effect which thankfully is largely
absent from these discs.

First class programme notes of substance from Edward Johnson.

I do not know the originals so it is difficult to comment definitively on
the transfers. All I can say is that they are managed smoothly but with
sufficient grit and distress to suggest the originals. It would be disconcerting
if all the tracks had been so homogeneously processed that they sounded similar.
There is not trace of that. Instead the age and acoustic range of the discs
is suggested by a variety of sound and effect. I think we can take it for
granted, when we see the name Mark Obert-Thorn, that the transfers will have
been handled with taste and a dedication to extract the most data possible
from the original grooves.

Better yet the two disc set is available at mid-price.

Rob Barnett

Harry Downey adds

Unfashionable music - or, to be more exact, music played in an unfashionable
manner - is the raison d'être of a new double CD from Biddulph. It
is a single composer release, with J.S. Bach played in a way that will make
the purist shudder and look for the off switch on the remote control. We
are talking about Symphonic Bach - his music arranged for full symphony orchestra
and sounding a world removed from today's lean, 'authentic' style.

The recordings date from 1926 up to the mid-forties, with eminent conductors
and orchestras. In that period, and earlier, it seemed that few conductors
could resist making their own personal arrangements of Bach's music and this
release showcases a selection of 78s of the period. One wonders how many
of these orchestrations were simple self-indulgence or how many of the arrangers
were trying to match Stokowski's success. His still famous recording of the
D Minor Toccata and Fugue with the Philadelphia Orchestra of 1927
no doubt prompted much envy and peer pressure among his fellows. This allied
to some nudges from record companies looking for comparable financial returns
prompted many recordings in the same style.

The tracks are not in chronological order but taking them in the listed sequence
finds Grammophon's then 'House' conductor attempting to emulate Stokowski
with a slightly ponderous D Minor Toccata & Fugue. Walter Damrosch
conducts a charming arrangement by his father of the Gavotte for Solo
Cello and in its first appearance (the Schoenberg version is on CD2)
the "St.Anne's" Prelude and Fugue is given a richly romantic
performance by Frederick Stock with a recording which is remarkably good
for its time.

Stokowski himself conducts his own arrangement of the Arioso of
Cantata 156 - inevitably lush and unhurried, with harps prominent,
a strong contrast to Mitropoulos' version of the G Minor Fantasia and
Fugue - dramatic and angst-ridden with prominent brass in the Fantasia
and a noticeable character change for the Fugue. Orchestrations other than
by the conductors form a trio of tracks - a romantic extract from the St.
Matthew by Ormandy, Reiner in a busy, richly scored "Little" Fugue,
an inviting strings-only Preludio from Partita No 3 (Koussevitzsky)
and two fairly routine orchestrations of his own are conducted by Vittorio
Gui.The Toscanini track is from a 1939 broadcast (with applause)
using the Respighi version of the C Minor Passacaglia and Fugue. Richly
scored, played here with energy and fire it was in the conductor's repertoire
for a number of years.

Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt conducts his own arrangement of the Italian Concerto.
With strings and some delightful writing for the woodwinds the piece
is a charmer from start to finish. The sleeve notes apologise both for the
technical quality of the playing and the recording quality of the two Klemperer
pieces from Paris in 1946 but as they are the only Bach-Klemperer transcriptions
extant they undoubtedly have historical interest. Schoenberg's name appears
as the orchestrator of the next three tracks - two brief Chorale Preludes
(Horenstein) and a diverse and colourful version of the "St. Anne" Prelude
and Fugue (Kleiber). The Kleiber track suffered from pitch variations
that Biddulph have worked hard to overcome and as his only recording in the
genre must be looked on as an historical document.

The remaining items have a strong British interest with arrangements by
Barbirolli (warm and attractive despite being from his ill-fated New York
period), and an intriguing orchestration of the F Major Toccata shared
by Heinrich Esser (originally from 1859) and Elgar - whose ending, added
in 1908, is used in this curiosity. Malcolm Sargent's version of the Air
from Suite no 3 - has some appeal but the rubato makes it sound doubly
old-fashioned. More Elgar in his arrangement of the C Minor Fantasia and
Fugue - a magnificently full-blooded orchestration that still refuses
to sound dated even in a 1926 recording. The Henry Wood D Minor Toccata
and Fugue was scored for a large orchestra with an extra large percussion
section along with quadruple woodwind and brass. The technology of 1935 failed
to capture all of the attempted fireworks but enough of this attempt to out-do
Stokowski remains to impress.

Potential buyers need have no undue concerns about the sound quality. Obviously
there is surface noise and the recordings are period pieces but one must
commend all involved in the re-processing which has been so successful.